Holcomb, M. Damien

Franklin G. Shaw, Partner of the law firm of Leger & Shaw, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1957. Shaw attended college at Louisiana State University and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting in 1979.  Shaw received his legal education from Louisiana State University Law Center, where he was research assistant to Professor Frank L. Maraist. Shaw graduated and received his Juris Doctor in 1982.

Shaw is presently admitted to the Louisiana Bar and he is also admitted to practice before  the United States District Court, Western, Eastern, and Middle Districts of Louisiana as well as the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. Shaw's legal practice includes the areas of Admiralty and Maritime Law, Litigation and Appeals, Personal Injury, Products Liability Law, Professional Malpractice Law, and Toxic Torts. He has litigated claims resulting in multi-million dollar verdicts on behalf of his clients, particularly dealing with burn injuries.

In Shaw's 27 plus years experience in the practice of law, he has litigated a wide variety of cases including cases involving admiralty and maritime claims, burn injuries, automobile crashes, road and highway defects, medical malpractice and product liability cases before courts in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Shaw argued on behalf of the plaintiffs in the case of Estate of Hunter v. General Motors Corp., 729 So.2dd 1264 (Miss. 1999), before the Mississippi Supreme Court resulting in a decision favorable to our clients.

Shaw also has extensive experience handling class action and mass tort litigation including explosions at the Kaiser Aluminum Plant in Gramercy, Louisiana and the C.F. Industries in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, Billieson v. HANO, a class action case involving poisoning from lead paint and In re: Panacryl Sutures Product Liability Litigation, in which he currently serves as a member of the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee in MDL proceedings in the United States District Court of North Carolina.  Shaw also worked extensively on discovery, damages and mediations in connection with the M/V BRIGHT FIELD collision with the New Orleans Riverwalk shopping mall in 1996 in which the firm served as co-lead counsel for the claimants.

Shaw is a member of the bar associations of Orleans, Jefferson and Ascension Parishes, Louisiana State Bar Association, the American Bar Association and Federal Bar Association. He is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association Section on Insurance, Negligence, Compensation, and Admiralty Law and the American Bar Association Section on Torts and Insurance Practice. Shaw has also served on the Louisiana State Bar Association's Committee on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. He is a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, The Louisiana Association for Justice and The American Association of Justice.

A family man, Shaw is a loving husband and father of seven sons. In addition to his busy law practice, Shaw makes time to serve his community as an Elder at Three Rivers Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Covington, Louisiana. He also volunteers his time coaching football, baseball, and track.

In his spare time, Shaw likes to study theology.